How project approach influences adoption of SWC by farmers,: examples from southern Mali

Choices in project approach affect the continuation of soil and water conservation (SWC) after project withdrawal, and thus the sustainability and cost effectiveness of the project. A SWC project was carried out in southern Mali between 1986 and 1998. Its features were the promotion of cheap and simple SWC measures, a participatory village extension approach with limited use of incentives, and the incorporation of the SWC programme in an existing Malian extension service. By 2000, farmers in half the 5000 villages in southern Mali had been trained in SWC. By 2002, erosion-control measures had been installed in 94 percent of the villages in southern Mali by 46 per cent of the farmers and in 15 per cent of the fields. Though external donor support has stopped, farmer adoption is steadily continuing and spreading to untargeted villages. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.